Consult Your Dentist Twice a Year, Experts Tell Nigerians

The Nigerian Dental Association has recommended consulting a dentist twice a year and brushing the teeth at least twice a day. This, they say, will make a lot of difference in the management of oral health in Nigeria.

President of the Nigerian Dental Association (NDA), Dr. Olabode Ijarogbe, gave the advice at a World Oral Health Day programme put together by the association in conjunction with Unilever Plc, in Lagos.

Ijarogbe said, “25 per cent of Nigerians have not been observing the advice of brushing their teeth twice a day, while 46 per cent suffer from various types of oral diseases.” He said, that there is more to do in sensitising the public on oral safety because, “if health is wealth, then oral health cannot be ignored.”

Ijarogbe also said that people must consider their diets and avoid menu that can cause challenges to their oral health. He said, the public should avoid or minimise taking refined sugar, cigarette and alcohol.

“Normally, we have bacteria in our mouth. The bacteria work on this refined sugar to produce a dilute acid, which results in dissolution of hard tooth tissue. Each time we take much of the highrefined sugar, it retains as substrate at different corners in our mouth and then the bacteria in our mouth feeds on them to cause havoc. Sometimes, it also results in swollen gum, which bleeds each time you touch it.”

On the infrastructural facilities for oral health surgeries, Ijarogbe said the country is lagging behind, but there has been a significant improvement in the last 10 years.

However, the Minister of Health, Dr Haliru Alhassan, said, there is a National Oral Health Policy aimed at driving the country towards a better oral health management and realising the aspirations of vision 2020. Among the provision of the National Oral Health Policy, according to Alhassan, is the promotion of national oral health research, preventing oral health-related diseases and respect for gender and age among others. He said, “The mouth is the gateway to the body; we eat and communicate with it, and it is the first contact when we talk. There must be a paradigm shift in the way we take care of our oral health.” he said.

According to him, “about 90 per cent of the world’s population suffer from oral deficiency, so there is urgent need to encourage and increase awareness on oral health,” he said.